Event more of a 'celebration' than a 'competition'

The Southland-Otago competitors in the 2014 New Zealand Dairy
Industry Awards competition were ''treated like royalty''
during the days leading up to the formal evening dinner and
25th anniversary ball, says Tracy Henderson, of Winton.

Tracy and her husband Steve represented the region as the
sharemilker/equity farmer of the year contestants at the
awards, which were held at the Sky City Hotel, Auckland on
Auckland 9.

The region's farm manager of the year, Jared and wife Sara
Crawford, and dairy trainee of the year, Josh Lavender, of
Lochiel, and fiancee Chantelle Ross, also attended, along
with a large contingent of supporters from Southland.

''[The whole experience] was amazing,'' Mrs Henderson said.

''We were wined and dined by Meridian Energy, Fonterra,
PrimaryITO and Westpac, and we went to Fonterra's offices.''

Although she and Mr Henderson were unplaced in their category
she won a gold medal in the ''Amazing Race'', a trip around
Auckland, solving clues as they went.

Mr Lavender was pleased with his second placing in the dairy
trainee section, while Mr Crawford won the Meridian Energy
Leadership merit award.

Mr Lavender, who took part in a study tour around the
Waikato, said the awards evening was fantastic and a great
celebration of the New Zealand dairy industry.

''All the winners were thoroughly deserving,'' Mr Lavender
said.

He said the opportunity to network with the other top
performers from around the country and to hear how they got
to where they were, was ''hugely inspirational and
encouraging to people like us''.

The judges said of Mr Lavender ''Josh has been a standout his
whole life and has very strong goal setting.

''He is going to succeed in whatever he does.''

The trainee category winner was 24-year-old Ruth Hone, of
Taupo, who was the first woman to win the title in the
history of the competition.

''We are the future leaders,'' Ms Hone said during her
acceptance speech.

Cameron Luxton, of Galatea, Bay of Plenty, was third. Nick
Bertram, of Featherston, won the farm manager competition.
Simon Player, of Kerepehi, was second and Phillip Colombus,
of Oxford, third.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Bertram said the awards ''had
not felt like a competition, but felt like a celebration''.

Charlie and Jody McCaig, of Hawera, won the
sharemilker/equity farmer of the year category.

They said they were delighted to take the 25th title home to
Taranaki, back to where the competition had started.

Kevin and Sara O'Neill, of Waiau, were runners-up and Duncan
and Kim Fraser, of Halcombe, were third.

The awards had a prize pool of $180,000.

More than 650 people attended the national awards dinner and
ball. Tickets sold out in one day earlier in the year.

In addition to the awards dinner, the art deco-themed ball
was held to celebrate 25 years of the national sharemilker of
the year competition and many of the past winners attended.

In addition to a magician and a singer, a band kept those
attending dancing to about midnight, and then many moved to
another bar in the hotel. Some made it back to their rooms in
time for breakfast and to catch their flights.